#Sean’s crackpot theories

[aninklingof]

Okay so I’ve been trying to take a nap for the past 15 minutes but for some reason my brain has been hyperfixating on theorizing @covenofwives ‘s God-Sibling AU, so I’m gonna share my personal theories on it so my head will finally shut up.

Specifically these theories are focused around what happened to PunzOP and who or what Lanky Chompers is. I am convinced the two are connected, and my reasoning for that is simply Punz. So here are my theories:

A) Lanky Chompers is the Warden or related to the skulk in one way or another. My evidence for this is this drawing that Coven made, Lanky Chompers has the distinct cyan glow that the skulk also has, as well as his horns look suspiciously like the Warden’s frill-things. Either Lanky Chompers comes from the original dimension the skulk and Warden does or he is the Warden.

B) PunzOP’s dimension that he watches over is the Aether (the glowstone framed water like portal that was a mod in the early years of Minecraft and people thought it was an actual thing in the game. It wasn’t.) Evidence here is PunzOP’s color palette and wing-motif, as the Aether is basically heaven like the Nether is hell.

C) PunzOP was killed or captured by Lanky Chompers. Pretty self-explanatory, my only evidence to back this theory up is how both entities are related to Punz.

D) PunzOP IS Lanky Chompers. This one is a bit far-fetched, since I think that LC is related to Skulk and PunzOP is god of the Aether. But maybe he was like possessed or corrupted by the skulk like how the catalysts spread it when a mob dies near one in the game. This would explain LC’s connection with Punz though.

E) Lanky Chompers is just a spooky demon manipulating Punz and has nothing to do with anything I just said and I’m simply leaning into my crazy conspiracy theorist tendencies.

F) 4K knows more about PunzOP’s disappearance than we as the audience are currently aware of. Evidence here is this animation Coven did to the Doki Doki Literature Club song, when the lyric “I wonder where Sayori is” (PunzOP was effectively Sayori in the animatic) the picture of 4K with a glitch effect and a censor bar over his eyes is shown.

—I think that’s it now for my theories, I’d love for y’all to share your own (If that’s alright with Coven ofc) and… yeah!

Thanks for listening to my crackpot theories and don’t forget to blow a kiss to Lanky Chompy on your way out! 😂❤️

[aninklingof]

Oh my stars Coven that was AMAZING!!!!!!

I’m going to start theorizing whenever I reblog a fic in the AU, cuz my head is still absolutely hyperfixated.

So before I even begin theorizing— Jesus Christo Mary and Joseph the FOOT NIBBLES-

Anyway moving on…

So XD’s surprise and confusion about Punz giving Dream the eyes and having to ask “mercenary Punz? Like white hoodie Punz?” Was DEFINITELY because he immediately thought of PunzOP. Cannot change my mind.

Also Punz is like, 100% possessed by Lanky Chompers right? Like 10000000% he’s being controlled.

Which just makes the cogs in my brain go wild. Why does Lanky want end portals opened? And what is his plan for Dream and Punz in this?? Are they simply pawns??? I have so many questions and I’m ecstatic about where the lore is going.

And also if we get a fic of XD tickle-torturing Punz I will SCREAM— /pos

We’ve been so blessed with content today… with this fic and the Dralbum? Perfect day for the community. I’ve been well fed. 😊

Interrogations

Dream knew DreamXD would come for him eventually after his stunt in the End. He didn't expect that XD would be so serious about demanding answers. Or expect for far XD would go to get them.

WOOOOOOO!!! Next part of the AU baby lets go! And perfect timing for this :D since people are making theories. Sadly this fic won't answer any but it has a lot of ticklings. And it takes place right after Dandelion Kisses.

Warnings for this fic: Intense tickling. Like it's called interrogations, it is very heavily a tickle torture fic. Dream is fine and safe but be careful when reading. Also warning for feet nibbles in this fic. It's not a lot or in great detail but feet nibbles do happen and I know that can make people uncomfortable. Again pls be careful when reading, don't push yourself to read something if it makes you uncomfortable.

Thank you and pls enjoy!

---

Dream was still pulling dandelions and grass out of his hair by the time he and George had finished lunch. He’d left them in, as some sort of whimsy reminder of the day, but a few too many started tickling at his ears and he was pulling them out now.

George had left to meet with Sapnap. He didn’t know when he’d be back, but he promised not to mention anything about Dream. It wasn’t the right time and while George didn’t agree, Dream knew he wouldn’t break his trust.

Now all that was left was to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. Dream taunted with the idea of going out. He could cover himself up and walk around the SMP, not interact with anyone even though his whole being burned to. He wanted to know what was happening, to catch up with everyone. He had to visit Techno sometime and see where the piglin stood exactly. He had to get to the next part in his plans with Punz.

Punz…huh.

Dream hadn’t thought of Punz since their last meeting. Everything had been crazy and it felt like he never got time to think and sort everything out. Now Dream thought of Punz and a million questions popped in his head.

Where was the blonde bounty hunter now? They had a meeting plan in the snow and then that was it. It was supposed to be planned out from there but then Punz had vanished. He handed Dream those weird Ender Pearls and then he’d left. Dream was too excited with the new plan to really think properly. He should have sought Punz out, or at least planned a better way to contact him.

Maybe that could be the next plan. And George could help. A small list formed in Dream’s head while he walked from the kitchen to the main room then a sudden familiar pop sound filled the air, and Dream stood looking at DreamXD.

The God looked better than the last Dream had seen him. The torn up bloodied imagine of his brother was replaced with this. His cloak was completely fixed and the blood was gone. Dream glanced down at XD’s arms, only seeing the top set hang over his cloak. He couldn’t see the damaged one, and worried if it was still torn, bloody and limp. But he forced himself to look up, get his thoughts away from it.

If XD was here, there’s only one conclusion Dream’s mind leapt to.

He’s going to put me back in the prison!

Adrenaline coursed through Dream’s veins for survival. His legs screamed at him to run and he nearly did when XD rose up his arm. He thought it was coming to grab at him, but XD held up his palm like he was trying to sooth a wild animal and he spoke.

“I’m not taking you back to the prison. I’m not here for that.” XD’s voice rumbled behind the mask. That mask was once comforting to look at and now it filled Dream with anxiety. When the mask was on it wasn’t his brother speaking to him. It was the God of the server.

XD lowered his hand slowly and spoke again. “You are not going back there. But I need to talk to you.”

Dream’s heart thumped uncomfortably in his chest. He had practiced what he’d say to XD over and over again in his head but now given the chance his memory failed him. He opened his mouth and was cut off.

“How did you get to the End?”

Any hope Dream let himself had fell. So it wasn’t to talk, it was to get answers. Not a conversation Dream wanted but it was something.

“W-We…” Dream cleared his throat when he realised how hoarse his voice sounded. “I found a stronghold where the portal frames weren’t destroyed.”

“How?” XD asked suddenly.

A bead of sweat rolled down Dream’s neck. He wished he had his mask on to hide. It seemed unfair XD got to hide while he was forced to face this head on. “I just...searched for it. Went to stronghold after stronghold until I found it.”

“You? Not you and George?”

“No!” Dream quickly shook his head. “No. It was me. All me.”

“You…” XD repeated the word slowly. “So you went out and searched for the stronghold yourself, found it and then went back and got George?”

Dream realised his fuck up before XD finished his sentence. That wouldn’t make any sense time wise considering Dream and George travelled for a month.

“No I… I knew the area where to search. I got George and brought him with me while we went to the stronghold.”

XD hummed and Dream realised he didn’t make a whole lot of sense. His mind cursed himself. How could he be so calm and cool speaking to everyone else, but as soon as he had to talk to his brother it felt like his mind was mush and his mouth was full of cotton.

XD was silent for a long while before he spoke again. “How did you open the portal?”

A thousand lies ran through Dream’s head but before he could say anything XD cut in. “Do not lie to me about this Dream.”

Dream wanted to act in offence, but it wasn’t like XD was wrong. “I… I used those ender pearls. The ones in the portal frames.”

XD nodded slowly. “And where did you get them?”

Dream controlled his breathing. “I… I found them.”

“No you didn’t.” XD voice was harsher. “Where did you get them?”

“I made them.” It was partly a panicked response, but XD’s head tilted and Dream couldn’t tell if it was in consideration or not.

“Really?” The voice was dripping in sarcasm. He did not believe it. “How do you make them?”

Dream pursed his lips. Caught.

“Right. So. How did you get them?”

“I… I just found them. I swear-”

“Did someone give them to you?”

Dream thought he controlled his face enough to not let it slip away, but without his mask he didn’t have that assurance. Seems like his expression wasn’t controlled enough as XD quickly asked. “Who gave them to you?”

There was no point lying again, but if Dream told then Punz was in trouble. Probably worse than trouble. Punz would  be dead. “N-No-one! I found them. I knew you needed something for the portals and they fit.”

“Did this person also tell you where the stronghold was?”

His face clearly made a tell again because XD nodded. “Okay. So they’re the same person. Who is it?”

“I… It - N-No-one. It was all me.”

XD sighed. A sigh that was holding back frustration. “Dream, this is serious.” His voice was almost growling. “Whoever gave you those Eyes is dangerous. You could have been killed, or someone else might have followed you through. Or Dragon could have gotten out to the Overworld. So you need to tell me right now who gave them to you.”

Dream’s neck felt wet with sweat and his heart raced. He couldn’t sell out Punz no matter what. If XD was that mad at his own brother he couldn’t imagine the rage he’d have for someone unrelated to him. “No-one did…”

Dream’s voice wasn’t very believable, but he already knew XD didn’t believe him. He just had to outlast the God and show that he wasn’t budging.

Of course it was easier thinking that than actually doing it. Despite them being brothers, XD was terrifying and while Dream was sure XD would never hurt him, the aura from the God was…unsettling.

XD moved suddenly and if Dream wasn’t so used to XD’s tells he would have been caught instantly. The God leapt from his position, arms out stretched to grab hold but Dream quickly ducked under them. He pushed himself off the floor and ran for the door but he didn’t even make it half way before he was caught.

XD’s upper arms caught around Dream’s waist. The blonde didn’t even have a chance to struggle before his wrists were captured and Dream was pulled up off the ground, his arms held up high above his head. He kicked out his legs, but even as his foot hit into XD’s shins, the God was unmoved.

Undetered by Dream’s actions, XD brought forward his lower set of arms. His hands poised on either side of Dream’s ribs before digging in. His claws scribbling through the tunic over the ticklish bones.

“Pffftt! W-Wait! Wahahahait!” Dream laughed instantly with no chance to steel himself from the tickling. Honestly this wasn’t what he was expecting at all.

The tickling hands crawled up to Dream’s armpits, drilling into the hollows before skittering their way down and kneading at Dream’s hips. The trapped mortal threw his head back in a boisterous laugh that caught him off guard. XD usually teased his tickly victims into a frenzy but there was none of that softness. XD went straight in for the kill. His fingers crawled around to Dream’s stomach and vibrated over the quivering belly, drawing the laugh up to near hysterics.

XD lessened his tickling only slightly to whisper into Dream’s ear. “This doesn’t stop until you tell me who gave them to you.”

Dream gasped between his helpless laughter. He’s going to tickle torture me to find out!

The realisation kicked Dream’s body into survival. He tried to wiggle, kick and worm his way out of XD’s hands but it was no use. XD didn’t budge and hands tickling didn’t falter in their attack. They moved down, switching between scribbling over Dream’s tummy and kneading over his hips. He never stayed in each spot for a set time, moving rapidly between them or sometimes he’d give one more attention than the other. It kept Dream’s nerves constantly on edge and crying out for mercy when he thought it should be over.

Tears prickled in the corner of Dream’s eyes when XD finally stopped. Their hands pulled back but the hands around Dream’s wrists still didn’t move while Dream took in gulp after gulp of air.

“Pl…Plehease… Stop…” Dream gasped.

“Who gave you the Eyes, Dream?” XD voice was cold as they asked.

“No-No-one! Please XD just listen to me-!”

Dream was moved. From being hoisted in the air he was then laying on the floor of the cottage. By the time he realised it he was still trapped. XD sat over his legs, facing away from Dream and down to his feet. Dream immediately knew what was coming. He tried to jump up and make a grab for the back of XD’s cloak but his hands were tied. Literally. He looked up above his head to see his wrists bound together with rope that grew from the floor. Like tan snakes they weaved around Dream’s wrists and tied into a tight knot.

He tried his hardest to pull on the ropes, but it was worthless. His attention was drawn back to XD as the God began to slowly pull off his brother’s socks.

“XD! Wait wait wait! WAHAIT! Plehease!”

His brother paid no attention, throwing off the socks without hesitation. Dream curled his toes and tired to cover one foot with the other, but XD simply grabbed his toes. His foot was stretched out and his sole attacked. XD’s terrible tickly claws scratched up and down his foot, not focusing on one spot but just making sure the whole area was tickled.

Dream threw his head back into a laugh, which became a scream when his other foot was grabbed in the same way. Stretched out and tickled beyond reason.

“PLEHEHEHEASE! PLEHEHEHEASE! MERCY! MERCIHIHIHIY!”

It was only a matter of time before those claws would hone in on his worst spot. His laugh came out in high pitched squeaks whenever those claws brushed along his arch. It was like they were sending warning shocks through his body, alighting his nerves while taunting him: this is what’s coming. This is what you’ll be dealing with.

“Tell me who gave you the Eyes. And this stops.” XD slowed his fingers, softly scratching over the balls of Dream’s feet and just under his toes. It still tickled madly, but his laughter was soft enough to hear XD’s words and speak.

“EHEHEX DEHEHEHE! Ple-ehehe-eHEAHAHASE! PLEASE! I-I cahahan’t breheheheathe!”

“You can speak just fine. Talk.” XD replied coldly, and his fingers went down, just ever so slightly, closer to Dream arch.

“NOHOHO! PLEHEHEHASE!” Dream screeched. He tried to arch his back as much as he could but couldn’t do much with XD on his legs. “I CAHAHAN’T! EheheHEHEehehex Deheheheheh! Plehehehease!”

“That’s not an answer.”

With that XD’s nails went down, directly over the arches of Dream’s sensitive feet and scribbled.

Dream’s laughs came out in mix of silent screams and sudden bouts of hysterics. He wiggled, turned and kicked out any part of his body he could move. He couldn’t speak or form words, or at least not consciously anyway. His mind was overtaken by the shocks of ticklish energy. Numbing his thoughts and overriding every sense in his body to just feel the tickling.

He barely even noticed when two more arms sprouted from XD’s back. They pushed aside XD’s cloak, flexed their fingers before suddenly launching down and tickling into Dream’s tummy.

Dream didn’t think he could physically be tickled anymore than he already was, but it seems his nerves still had a ways to go. He could feel his mind slipping to the depths of insanity, forever feeling this endless tickling. It seeped into every thought of his mind, electrifying all of his nerves with no sign of rest.

The tickling must have stopped for a while but Dream was still laughing. Eventually his laughter died down to giggles and he noticed XD had moved off his legs. Not that it helped him in any way. His whole body felt like jelly, unmoving except for the few twitches he made. He could feel the tear streaks down his cheeks only because XD wiped them away. He was by Dream’s side now, wiping away the fallen tears with the back of his hand. The extra arms he sprouted were gone, but his mask remained on and his voice still cold when he spoke.

“Tell me who gave you the Eyes Dream and it’s over.”

Dream whined. “Pl…please XD…. I… I can’t….”

“Did they threaten you, Dream? Did they say something would happen to you if you told me? Or threaten George?”

It was the first time XD’s voice had gone soft through their whole conversation and Dream hated how much he leaned into it. He hated how his heart fluttered and yearned for that voice again, to hear XD be his brother.

“N-No…” Dream hesitated to say, and felt a cold sting when all softness from XD’s voice was gone.

“Then tell me who.”

Dream shut his eyes and shook his head. It was becoming unbearable to see that cold mask looking down at him. He heard XD sigh and then he moved. Dream’s nerves tingled with unknowing until he felt his tunic being pulled up over his tummy.

“N-NO!” Dream yelped, eyes shot open and he tried to curl up again.

XD was having none of it, easily stretching Dream out again and sitting on his legs. Now facing his stomach.

“PLEASE! XD!”

“I’m not playing games with you Dream. When you’re ready to tell me, this stops.”

He came down upon Dream’s stomach, who tensed up expecting raspberries blown across his skin. But it was not XD’s lips that touched his skin, it was XD’s fangs. The End God immediately began nibbling along the soft sensitive flesh and Dream lost it.

He screamed louder than he ever had. If he had any sense left to think he’d be thankful George’s cottage was in the middle of a forest. It must have sounded like he was being murdered.

Dream vision was overtaken with flashing colours, blinding white lights and spouts of darkness. His nerves felt alight with fire and electricity at the same time.

It felt like hours the tickling lasted for, but it was truly only a few seconds. Dream took in air like he had been drowning. His cheeks were wet with tears again and his hair clung to his sweat slicked skin.

The starry mask of XD was pushed up, revealing his lips set in a straight emotionless expression. Dream tried to plead again, but it came out in whimpers and XD spoke over him. “You cannot handle my fangs on your stomach. And that’s not even your worst spot.”

Dream cocked his eyebrow up in question. Or he tried to but he honestly wasn’t sure if it moved. His whole body felt like it wasn’t in his control.

“How are you going to last with those fangs on your worst spot?”

It look longer for Dream to connect the dots, and even then it didn’t fully click until XD moved himself off Dream’s legs and grabbed one of his ankles.

Dream wanted to jump away and fight with his full strength, but he was weak and his voice hoarse from all the laughing. He barely got his other leg up to kick before XD’s hand snapped on and held it down. His shouts for XD to stop came out more in a whimper.

“Plehehease! Plehehease plehehease dohohon’t! E-Ehehex Dehehe!”

“You know how to make it stop.” Was all XD said before the foot was raised up, and he opened his mouth for his terrifying fangs to grow long and sharper. They grazed across Dream’s arches, nibbling so softly and Dream screamed for as much as his lungs would allow.

His laughter came out in a mix of silence and screams. When his lungs could laugh no more his face was still an expression of hysterical laughter but no sound came out. When he got the smallest puff of air it wailed out his throat in pleading laugh-filled words.

“GREHEHEHEHEHEN! GREHEHEHEHEHEHEN!!! FUHUHUHUCKING STOHOHOHOP!”

The tickling did stop, but foot was held up to XD’s fangs. The God hesitated, having a silent debate with themselves and even if the tickling had stopped, Dream still felt no safer when he could feel the God’s breath over his foot.

He’s not going to stop!

Dream felt his chest tightening when XD slowly lowered his foot, calming him for a moment.

“You get a break, then this continues.”

Words had never felt so cold and terrifying. “Nohoho! Plehehease! You-You cahan’t!”

“I can, and I will. Until you’ve told me who gave you the Eyes, this doesn’t stop.”

“I-I can’t…” Dream blinked away tears in his eyes, unsure if they were from his tickling, or frustration. “I can’t tell you.”

“You have to, Dream.”

“You’ll… You’ll hurt them if I do…”

It was easier to read XD’s emotions with their lips shown. They pulled back, lips slightly parted in a silent gasp as they paused over the words. “I… I wouldn’t.” XD spoke after a moment to collect his thoughts.

“You will! You…” Dream rapidly blinked the tears from his eyes and looked up to XD. It probably wasn’t as impressive or serious as he wanted it to look. “You nearly threw me back in the prison, and I’m your own brother! You’d kill a stranger if they did the same thing!”

XD’s mouth fell open as though in shock, and Dream could only imagine it was a look of pain on their face. “I-I…” XD started then silently mouthed something. They looked down for a moment before bringing their face back up. “I would have… I would have never put you back in that prison. I… I misspoke.”

“You misspoke?! You said you’d have thrown me in the prison if you had the chance!”

“I wouldn’t have! I was…I was angry! I was terrified! Terrified I’d lost you. That I’d lose you!”

Despite how much his heart wanted to hold onto the pain and spitefulness, he could hear truth in his brother’s words. They had spent years together, learning one another's tells and XD wasn’t lying.

“That’s why I need you to tell me who gave them to you. If they know how to make them, or have some way to get them, they’re dangerous Dream. They nearly killed you.”

Dream’s head fell back in defeat. Of course, of course it wasn’t for Dream’s concern. It was to keep those stupid Eyes safe and out of everyone else’s hands. It was all to protect the End. Dream’s care was a second thought.

“I won’t hurt them, Dream. If it was one of your friends who gave them to you. I just want to speak with them.”

Part of Dream didn’t want to believe it, but he knew XD too well. The God wasn’t lying but doubt still prickled along Dream’s skin. It was hard to trust what he knew right now. His mind was still foggy from the tickles, and it was hard to think of XD showing mercy to anyone when it came to the End.

“You…you won’t hurt them?”

XD shook his head. “No.”

“Promise?”

“I promise you. I just want to talk to them.”

It was hard to believe, but the tickling of XD’s fangs along his feet were still coursing through him, lightly strumming his nerves with the memory. And he had a feeling XD wouldn’t show him mercy for his safeword again.

“P… Punz… It was Punz.”

XD’s reaction was a lot…less reactionary than Dream thought. The God seemed paused, like he hadn’t heard Dream and then he tilted his head. “Punz?”

“Y-Yes…?”

XD’s head tilted again, this time the other way. “Punz? Mercenary Punz? White hoodie wearing Punz?”

“Yes! How many Punz are there? That Punz, yes!”

XD leaned back ever so slightly, tilting his head up to the ceiling. He was still for a moment before looking back down to Dream. “You’re sure it was Punz who gave them to you?”

“Yes!” Dream huffed, frustrated.

“He didn’t give them to you from someone else? Did he make them?”

“He…well…” Dream pushed through the fog in his mind to think and remember. Punz had given him the Eyes but he hadn’t elaborated on how. When Dream went to ask, Punz had vanished. “I don’t know…” He admitted. “He gave them to me but I don’t know how he got them.”

XD paused again to think but after a moment his shoulders relaxed and his words came out softer, carried on a sigh. “Alright…”

Worry, dread and guilt pooled in Dream’s stomach. He’s sold out his friend over threats of tickling. “You won’t hurt him, right? You’re just talking.”

“I won’t hurt him, I promised.”

The ropes uncoiled from Dream’s wrists and disappeared. Dream hissed from the burn. His wrists were red and the skin was sensitive. He pulled his arms down, wincing slightly at the pain in his shoulder. XD must have let go of his ankles because he found his body curled up and then he was suddenly lifted into XD’s arms.

He didn’t fight the move, no matter how much Dream wanted to. This thoughts and feelings were still swirling around and confusing him. In his mind he wanted to still be angry at XD and scream at him for not listening, but his body just wanted to be coddled and wrapped up in XD’s cloak like he was a child again.

XD moved into George’s room and carefully placed his brother over the bed. Dream winced, when his wrists touched onto the sheets, but as he went to held them up they were gathered in XD’s hands. A tingling, ticklish feeling washed over Dream’s skin, and then the injury was healed and XD drew his hands away.

“You should sleep.” XD spoke. “Maybe get some water…”

Dream was tired, and his throat did feel scratchy from all the screaming. His body still felt weird, like the ghostly tickles were lingering on the edge, waiting to pounce him. Ghostly anticipation.

“Are you going to see Punz now?” Dream had to ask.

“Yes but…not to speak to him. Not yet. I’m going to try and find him and then decide what to do from there.”

Dream gave a silent sorry to Punz, wherever they were. XD promised not to harm them but he couldn’t help but feel he’d just gotten Punz locked into a future tickle torture session with his brother.

“Sleep.” XD said again and when Dream looked up he saw the God placing down a glass of water by the bedside table.

His throat cried out for water, but Dream ignored it and instead looked up to XD. “Will you be going then?”

“Soon…” XD nodded.

“Will you come back, or will you keep avoiding me?”

XD was taken aback by the question and even Dream was himself. He knew it was frustration but he couldn’t care less. He deserved to act a little petty.

“I’m not avoiding you…” XD sounded genuinely hurt which almost wavered Dream’s heart.

Almost.

“You haven’t spoken to me for a week, and the first time you do it’s to torture me to give up my friend.”

“This is serious Dream. If there are more Eyes out there or someone who can make them, it’s dangerous!”

“Then why didn’t you talk to me about it? Why didn’t you come sooner? Why did you make me wait and worry that each day would be the day you’d come back and drag me back to that prison?”

“I-I didn’t…” XD’s voice sounded hurt. “I needed to figure out what to say to you. I needed a plan for how to deal with everything.”

“Why do you need a plan for me?! Why can’t you just talk with me first?!  You’re my brother! We’re siblings, but you look for every excuse, every other way apart from just speaking to me! I’m your last resort to come to when you should have just spoken to me first!”

Tears flowed down Dream’s cheeks again and this time he didn’t have the tickling to blame. He never sobbed or cried though it welled up in his throat wanting to. Dream wouldn’t give XD that. He swallowed back his cries and shut his eyes.

He couldn’t hear XD move, but Dream just willed himself to believe the God had left. He kept telling himself that until he felt the hand run through his hair. It stopped at the base of his skull and scratched softly at his scalp. Dream couldn’t hold back the whine or gentle sigh that left him. He hated how easily he could relax in XD’s arms.

“I’m sorry, Dream.” XD’s voice sounded hoarse as well, like holding back a cry of their own. “I truly am. I don’t… I still don’t know what to do sometimes. I fear if I do one thing it’s not what you want, but then I end up doing the other and it hurts you still.”

Dream wanted to speak, but the scratching on his scalp made him too tired to think properly or form any words. He just felt the comfort of the mattress underneath him, the pillows under his head, and the warm blanket that suddenly covered him. Dream didn’t have to open his eyes to know it was green.

“I want to speak with you. Properly. I’ll speak with you soon. I promise. Sometime in the coming days…”

The words faded as did the rest of the world. The comforts and warmth all rolled into Dream as one, cradling him down into a soft gentle sleep.

His waking was not so soft. It was hand on his shoulder, rousing Dream from his slumber suddenly and George’s voice ringing in his ears. “Wake up! Dream!”

It took him a while to shake the sleep from his mind and blink himself awake. He felt groggy and unbearably thirsty. It was now night time. Candles were lit in the cottage to give it light and George was sat on the edge of their bed.

“Was XD here?” George asked frantically. “There’s a note left on the table from him. Was he here?”

Dream drank the water as George carried on. He was holding a note which he handed over when Dream asked for it. It was written in XD’s hand, though rather messily.

Dream. I meant what I said about speaking with you. I need to prepare things but in a couple of days I’d like to meet with you and we can discuss talking on fairer terms. If you ever need me before then, you can always find a way to the Glade and I’ll come to you.

Don’t worry about the prison. I’m taking care of that.

The last line cause Dream off guard. What did that mean? How was he taking care of the prison? XD never showed interest to the building, even when it had been Dream planning and organising it. He had waved it off as keeping neutrality then and even when it was Dream in it he sill refused to act.

What has changed his mind? Dream wondered. And what does he plan to do? What counts as ‘taking care of it’ to him.

“Dream!” George snapped, pulling Dream from his thoughts and reminded him he wasn’t alone. “What happened?”

It wasn’t an easily answered question, but it reminded Dream that George wasn’t here because of his meeting with Sapnap, and sparked a question.

“George! Did you go to the meeting? Was Punz there?”

“Punz?” George pulled and and raised one eyebrow. “Why you asking about him?”

“Was he?”

“No…well… That’s funny you should mention that, because Punz was supposed to be there but he never showed up. Sapnap seemed worried. Apparently Punz was helping with defences for the Kingdom a few days ago but he was acting off.”

Acting off? Dream thought. He wondered what would be considered acting off for Punz. The mercenary was a master manipulator, so it’s not like they’d be acting suspicious. But then Dream hadn’t given any plans out for dealing with Kinoko. He taunted about it to Sapnap of course but he had no plans at the moment for it. Especially not when George was so closely tied to it.

“Why are you asking about him?” George asked.

 “I… Well XD was here.”

“I knew it!” George climbed onto the bed. “It was so obvious! What did they say? They’re not…thinking of taking you to prison right?”

“No. I don’t… I don’t think so. But something did happen.”

“What?”

A blush flushed over Dream’s cheeks, but he cleared his throat and readied himself to explain. If Dream was going to go through with his plans, then he wanted George there by his side. And that meant telling him everything.

Dream sat up on the bed, faced George and began to explain.

[worldofwardcraft]

The GOP's slate of sickos.

January 13, 2022

Ever since the Republican Party morphed into a fetid stew of insane conspiracy theories and toxic Trumpism, more and more of its candidates for national office are not merely unqualified, but overtly misogynist psychopaths to boot. Examples? We got 'em.

Let's begin with Sean Parnell, a Trump-endorsed candidate for the open US Senate seat in Pennsylvania. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Parnell's estranged wife testified in family court how he physically abused her and their three children. Parnell also tried (and failed) to get a court to issue a gag order to prevent her from talking about the restraining orders she had filed against him. Parnell has since (wisely) suspended his campaign.

Next up: Max Miller, a former Trump White House adviser and loyalist, who's running to unseat an Ohio Republican congressman who voted to impeach the loser ex-president. According to Politico, Miller's a guy with "an anger problem" and a record in various jurisdictions that includes speeding, drunk driving and disorderly conduct. His ex-girlfriend, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, told Trump directly that a deranged Miller once assaulted her by pushing her up against a wall and slapping her in the face. Yet, at a rally last summer Trump said Max was "a really great guy."

Another US Senate candidate who appears a bit off his nut is Eric Greitens, the former Missouri governor who was forced to resign in 2018. Here's NBC News to explain why.

A woman who Greitens subsequently admitted to having an extramarital affair with accused him of taking a nude photograph of her without her consent, and told state House investigators that he assaulted her.

Then there's former NFL star Herschel Walker (pictured above standing alongside someone even more unbalanced) who's running for the US Senate in Georgia. Walker has openly admitted to being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, which leads him to engage in dangerous behavior. Said his ex-wife in a 2008 interview, "We were talking and the next thing I knew he just kind of raged and he got a gun and put it to my temple." The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that another woman who was romantically involved with Walker told police in 2012 that when she tried to end their relationship Walker threatened to "blow her head off" and then kill himself.

Add these to incumbent Republican loons like Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Greene and Paul Gosar, who are also running this November, and there's no question about it. The GOP has become a collection of women-hating kooks, crackpots and crazies.

[lildevyl]

Crackpot Mini Theory!!!

Okay, I’ve been re-watching @dolphintreasureart Glitch in the System Chapter 1 & 2.  And I think I have a theory for the game!  At least a Crackpot Mini Theory, full theory will be coming later on this week!  But it’s a Crackpot Mini Theory b/c my brain power isn’t up to full compacity for a full on theory. And before I forget @sarcastic-pasta-games  I so love the storyline!

So, the Mini theory!  So, in Glitch in the System by @sarcastic-pasta-games Jack, Jenny and Cliff are back in Wireland!  Only this time AntiSepticeye has been reeking havoc!  Characters have been disappearing, glitches in Wireland everywhere!  And to top it all off, Mack the Jack’s Computer Avatar to help keep everything flowing in Jack’s Computer is losing Control!

And I think I know what’s going on.  Anti is one of the most powerful Egos there are, but outside of Billy and Mac he’s not the most powerful being in Wireland.  I think when Billy brought Jack to Wireland the first time, and Jack wound up splitting, into Sean and Jack.  That it created a bug.  A but that temperately, had Mack without powerful.  The only other person who is powerful enough to stop Anti is Jack!

I think when Jack was there the first time when Billy brought him to Wireland and the Sean side was trying to trap his Jack side in Wireland.  Anti found out that the most powerful person there is, is Sean.  The Community was the one that brought Sean and Jack back together.  I think Anti wants to eight trap Jack or Sean in Wireland and fused with with Jack or Sean and go back to the world and be a real person!

Well, that’s my Crackpot Mini Theory!  And when I’m in a better headspace and have more brain power.  I will be updating my full theory!

[ashleyfanfic]

Let me say this for the people in the back

I am so sick and tired of seeing posts talking about the end of Game of Thrones being happy or sad. You know what, the reality is, it’s fucking ending. That’s sad! What’s not sad is that these actors have worked their asses off to bring us a fantastic story that will live beyond them. Look at Lord of the Rings. That lived beyond Tolkien. 

And then we have the group of jonerys shippers who think (or want) our beans to die. To that I say, “have you been paying attention?” First of all, we have these two who GRRM said the series is basically about them coming together. Second, we have all the promotional material being of them together. Yeah, we know a reveal is coming, but the truth is how much time do they really have to let Jon brood about that before the dead come knocking on the door and then how much will that actually matter? Third, the whole FUCKING SHOW has been about the Targaryen Restoration. Don’t believe me? What was that side book about? You know the one that GRRM wrote instead of finishing the sixth book? OH, yeah, Fire and Blood which is about the TARGARYEN LINE. Not the Stark line. Not the Baratheons, the Lannisters, the Tyrells, but the fucking TARGARYENS! You’ve got two living, breathing Targaryens who are both good people who are looking to fight for and protect their people with every ounce of power at their disposal. The ending of Dany’s arc last season saw people repeatedly talking about her line of succession and the fact that she “can’t” have a child. And the one person SHE chooses to share this information with doesn’t believe her. Oh, and we know that Targaryens are notorious for being attracted to one another and procreating like mad. Fifth, GRRM said that the ending would be bittersweet and everyone assumes that it means Jon or Dany or both will die. Hey, assholes, do you realize Lord of the Rings had a bittersweet ending and the only member of the Fellowship who died was Boromir(Sean Bean)? Arwen and Aragorn married, Faramir and Eowyn married, Sam married, Pippin married, Merry married. Frodo was never the same and left on the ship, but it was the happiest ending he could get at that point. So, bittersweet doesn’t mean everyone will die. People will die, I just don’t think it will be Dany and Jon. I also don’t think that they will sit on the Iron Throne but that’s my own crackpot theory. 

So, if you don’t like what I have to say, block me, unfriend me, however, this works in the world of Tumblr. I’m just sick and tired of seeing all you people who have let others get in your head and fuck up your minds. Stop all your worrying. Stop your pacing. Sit back and enjoy and drink in the tears of the doubters and haters as it comes. 

[boiledleather]

Ok, Sean. I don't know about you, but I'm already tired of arguing with Redditors on the "logic" issues of this season. How do you really feel about the vagueness of time in Beyond The Wall? Your voice seems to be in the minority with regards to the enthusiasm for the season. Personally, I think the pedants are overstating their case. As a long time watcher, this season is the first to feel truly epic from its start which I'm enjoying. What's your take on the whole Snag-A-Wight scenario, anyway?

Oh gosh. Back on July 31 I tweeted “Game of Thrones criticism will get more picayune, joyless, and uncompromising the closer we get to the ending & the bigger it becomes,” and I think that’s definitely turned out to be the case. There are many reasons for that  — not all of them organic. For example, this week in particular, Game of Thrones is the biggest business going on any pop-culture website; there’s literally nothing you can write about the show that won’t do huge numbers for the site, so the sites keep cranking them out, about every conceivable bone of contention or crackpot theory one could have. I’m in a position where I don’t have to participate, fortunately. (I actually turned down a paid gig to avoid being part of the problem.)

But it’s also a case of a pernicious tendency in TV criticism, which is the way so many critics (professional and amateur) line up behind a single idea and run with it as the conventional wisdom about a show. It’s much easier to regurgitate a complaint or plaudit you’ve heard elsewhere than to dig into a work yourself and see what you come up with – the template’s been established, you know there’s a readymade network of support for your idea, etc etc. Again, this isn’t entirely organic: TV critics are exposed to so much TV that they tend to overreact to novelty, which leads them to look for reasons to reject whatever the last big thing was and latch on to the new one. The problem with GoT is that it’s so unbelievably popular that they can’t quite quit it, which is a reason why the time-frame criticism has caught on. “Game of Thrones is misogynist” didn’t manage to dent the show’s viewership or that viewership’s interest in reading anything you can type about it, which means TV critics and pop-culture journalists have to keep covering it, which means they have to think of a new reason why it’s bad. (I know, I know, these are all generalizations, but they’re hard-earned through years in the field; I know I’m considered a GoT stan now lol, but I could make similar arguments about many, many other shows.)

Anyway, I also wrote on twitter about the timeframe issue in particular. Here’s how I see it.

The snarky, grumpy response is that people who complain about raven/dragon speed in Game of Thrones should spend their days calculating Santa Claus’s mph and leave art to adults. "By making me guess how long everything took to happen, the filmmakers violated their prime obligation: mileage.“ Go edit a wiki, you rubes.

Ah, I kid because I love. Now for the less rude answer:

The end of the kind of story Game of Thrones is telling requires massive, effects-heavy battles with zombies, dragons, huge armies, et cetera. The time and money required to pull this off in anything even close to a TV-show format and schedule means fewer episodes per year. Once that decision’s made, you have to prioritize how you spend your ever more precious screentime, especially when certain big points must be hit. So the creators chose to deemphasize the slog ‘n’ grind of travel and the remoteness of characters’ goals. (Which I loved! But oh well.) They’ve switched to time jumps that make travel look relatively quick & easy, which both saves screentime and builds up a sense of momentum and urgency—all equally valuable as we head to the climax.

Is the transition from the status quo ante inelegant at times? Yes, obviously. But the logic behind it and the value of it seem easy to grasp, to me. So when I sit down to write about an Game of Thrones now, it’s hard for me, personally, to imagine focusing on the speed/time issue. It’s a rich set of images, ideas, and characters on a literally unprecedented scale for TV. There’s plenty else to like or dislike there. 

That said, I share some complaints, to be honest. Regarding the time issue specifically: Simply for dramatic purposes, I would have liked the show to have emphasized how long Jon & company were stranded on that island—some fades to show passage of time, dialogue about how cold & hungry they are, make ‘em look extra haggard, that kind of thing. But to me that’s about one sentence’s worth of criticism (I just wrote it), not an essay, let alone the main thrust of how I interact with the show now. 

As for the snag-a-wight plan…I mean, look, that’s not a great plan. Nor is having a summit, or any kind of meeting at all, like brunch, with Cersei Lannister in King’s Landing. But y’know, Luke was more upset about Obi-Wan than Leia was about her entire planet, The Godfather’s baptism montage only showed Moe Greene and three of the rival family heads rather than four, you can’t blow up an oxygen tank in a shark’s mouth with a rifle, the Woodsmen look totally different in Fire Walk With Me and Twin Peaks Season Three, radioactive spiders give you cancer not spider-powers, yadda yadda yadda. The point is that if a work of narrative fiction is providing enough compensatory value, you can overlook any number of plot holes or storytelling fumbles. I get that Game of Thrones is not doing that for some people, but that’s been the case since literally day one. The idea that it’s suddenly crossed some Rubicon into Shit Land may be true for some, but it is not a truth universally acknowledged. 

[galatur]

how long u been on tumblr? fave comfort food? fave junk food? did u change ur former url because u didn't want to be associated with a certain publication? 3 languages u have never studied but would love to study/learn? u a history buff? if so, what are ur fave subjects of study? what crackpot linguistic theory do u secretely subcribe to? do u read a lot? if so, how do u read so much? is jepsenism the 4th stage of marxist thought? idris elba: yea or nay? fave music genres? fave hist/epic movies?

Ok lightning round!

how long u been on tumblr?

Longer than I care to remember.

fave comfort food?

Gyros, except when I’m sick like today, in which case it’s matzoh ball soup

fave junk food?

Sour cream and onion chips

did u change ur former url because u didn't want to be associated with a certain publication?

Yeah pretty much. I picked “Club Jacobin” when I started because I wanted to write left-wing posts for discussion. But then I got a full time job so I couldn’t write that much; and people started following me because they thought I’d post about the French Revolution all the time. (Thanks friends who stuck with me despite that.) The final straw was when people started thinking I was an official Jacobin blog or a fan of social democracy or something.

3 languages u have never studied but would love to study/learn? 

Ohlone

Ancient Egyptian

Arrernte

u a history buff? if so, what are ur fave subjects of study?

Yeah extremely. Fave topics include: the Chinese revolution through 1976; Tang China; Ireland from 1798-1923; southwest and California history esp. native people’s history; dynastic Egypt; LGBT history; so many others...

what crackpot linguistic theory do u secretely subcribe to? 

Does Dixon’s punctuated equilibrium theory of language change count?

do u read a lot? if so, how do u read so much? 

I’ve been reading more in the last couple years since I left my political organization. (Which is kinda ironic.) Not sure I have good tips on how to read a lot. Have friends who are eager to talk with you about what you’re reading? I’m in a bookclub and a slack for book discussions and those both motivate me a lot.

is jepsenism the 4th stage of marxist thought?

idk -- need someone to make a 4 heads poster with her first

idris elba: yea or nay? 

Is... is there Idris Elba discourse? I assume this is not questioning whether he’s fine.

fave music genres?

Punk, Delta Blues, sean nós, Afrobeat, girls with guitar or piano. Favorites -- all time: Tori Amos; this year: Against Me!; this week: this track

I should also mention that I declared Lyapis Trubetskoy the official music of this blog a while back so I guess that’s still in effect.

fave hist/epic movies?

Wind that Shakes the Barley

Black Robe

Mongol

How to Survive a Plague

The Weather Underground

Battle of Algiers

Hangmen Also Die!

Capitães de Abril

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

I Cento Passi

La Commune Paris 1871

Pride

Reds

Trumbo

Germany, Pale Mother

The Devil’s Whore

Catch a Fire

Rosewood

Sorry that’s so dude-heavy. History and Hollywood are full of misogynists.

[weerd1]

“The Doctor Falls” discussion (spoilery)

So, having now seen the season finale, how does my crackpot theory devised after “World Enough and Time” hold up?  Well, first, let’s review my theory:

_____

1) Pearl Mackie is a treasure and it would be weird to hype her as well as they did for one season, though as I recall there was a thing about Bill only being Companion for this season. 

2) We have not yet had a new Doctor announcement; this is atypical, indicating something special.  

3) We just had a very specific reminder at the beginning of "World Enough and Time” that Time Lords are gender-fluid. 

4) The Doctor's incarnations are always meaningful in some way, tied to how the last Doctor went out, or in the case of 12, needing to remind this new set of regenerations what kind of man he needed to be.  

5) The Doctor does not know how, or remember who, but he just lost a companion and has no idea who this wisp of a feeling called "Clara" was, so he would be pretty dead set against forgetting another Companion (he’s no longer “the man who forgets”).  How better to remember that person than to incarnate in their visage?   

 My crackpot theory is that Pearl Mackie is the 13th Doctor.

________

So, with all that being said, do I still think it possible after seeing this week?    Yes, I do, though perhaps less likely.  Though Bill’s ascension to Pilot removes her “death” for us the audience, The Doctor is going to still believe she died a Cyberman on that ship, so what incarnating into her visage means to him is still viable.  Additionally, there is of course the “The future is female” line which may be a clue as well to at least a female incarnation if not Pearl Mackie herself.  

I must admit though, I would really have loved one more season of the 12/Bill/Nardole dynamic.  I supposed Big Finish can come along and give me at least one more taste at some point.  

Oh, and do I believe Missy/The Master are gone?  Not for a second.

Looking forward to One in the Christmas special, and kind of hoping we get Sean Pertwee in a wig to reprise his father’s role.

But what I really want for Christmas, what would make all right with the world...on Christmas morning, I want a bright golden flash, and Pearl Mackie’s smile shining out from the doors of the TARDIS.  That would be a Christmas miracle, Mr. Moffatt.  

[libertariantaoist]

That’s it!  I’m done with libertarians and regret ever associating with the Fruit Loops.

The final straw was a noted libertarian saying the following about foreign policy:

“The United States should observe good faith and justice toward all nations and cultivate peace and harmony with all, should not have hatreds against some nations and affections for others, should have foreign relations based solely on commerce, and should engage in equal and impartial trade with all, without seeking or granting favors or preferences.”

Geez, how naïve can one be?

A second noted Fruit Loop said, “We should not meddle with the internal affairs of any other country.  Instead, we should have free trade with all nations and political entanglements with none.”

Completely bonkers.

Then there is a third loony libertarian with an entire cranium full of Fruit Loops, who said, “The purpose of our foreign policy is not to bring enlightenment or happiness to the rest of the world, but to ensure the life, liberty, and happiness of the American people.”

This loon went on to say that we should not engage in wars of liberation or otherwise interfere in foreign wars.  Then the crackpot followed with this:  “Erroneous moral principle is the most fruitful of all the sources of human calamity and vice.”

How does someone acquire such dangerous notions?  Well, with respect to the third guy, his mother had drilled him in Horace’s motto about Roman mothers despising war, or in Latin, bella matronis detestata.

Who is this third guy?

Well, he is none other than John Quincy Adams, the son of John and Abigail Adams.

Who is the first guy?

That would be George Washington.

The second guy?

Thomas Jefferson.

(Note:  Editorial license was taken with the quoted comments of each of the three, in order to contemporize the flowery language of the eighteenth century.)

How could these three guys have been so stupid?  Well, John Quincy Adams’ education explains how.  He studied six foreign languages, the classics, history, political theory, the Bible, and a season of “The Apprentice” on TV.  (Note to today’s college-educated millennials:  The last was a joke.)  He also spent seventeen years in European capitals after he accompanied his father to Paris in 1778.  By the age of twelve, he was clerking for the highest U.S. emissaries.  Upon returning home, he earned two degrees at Harvard and began a law practice.  (Source:  The Tragedy of U.S. Foreign Policy, by Walter A. McDougall)

Not having benefited from today’s multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness, John Quincy Adams didn’t think much of Spanish (aka Hispanic) customs, culture and rule.  He called Latin Americans of his era “the most ignorant, the most bigoted, the most superstitious of all the Roman Catholics in Christendom.”

Yeah, John Quincy Adams was sure a dumbbell and far inferior intellectually to such contemporary political thinkers as Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Wolf Blitzer, Megyn Kelly, and the rest of the media/political highbrows who enlighten the American public about the true meaning of being an American and the indispensable role of America in the world.

Just think of what where we’d be if Americans still embraced the three Fruit Loops of Washington, Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams.  We wouldn’t be in the middle of the Israel/Palestine conflict, we wouldn’t have invaded Iraq or Afghanistan, we wouldn’t be protecting Europeans from the bogeyman named Putin, we wouldn’t have sent 50,000 Americans to their death in Vietnam, we wouldn’t have VA hospitals full of veterans with psychological and physical wounds, and we wouldn’t be in bed with such undemocratic regimes as the Saudis for their oil, because we would have the same understanding as Adam Smith about the wonders of markets in meeting demand for resources.

So why don’t I want anything to do with libertarians?  Because conservatives, neocons, liberals, and neoliberals have convinced me that libertarians are Fruit Loops, even though libertarians embrace the same policy of non-aggression as the Founders.  This means that the Founders also must have been Fruit Loops.

I have a final question, though:  Isn’t it un-American to think that the Founders were Fruit Loops?

[resistancebed]

Fuck Steve Bannon Twice with a Hammer

As i write this, I just received a New York Times breaking news alert on my phone:  “President Trump’s strategist Stephen Bannon attacked the media as the ��opposition’ and said it should ‘keep its mouth shut’”.  If we had any doubt DJT is a fascist, his own senior strategist just obliterated it. How desperate and insecure must a President be to view the press as “opposition”? To have his advisor announce it should “keep its mouth shut”? It’s self-evident these are not the actions of stable, confident men. Both of them have made it repeatedly clear they feel tormented by the press, as if their words and actions exist in a vacuum, impervious to questions or critique.   On Twitter, I’ve referred to DJT as “Kim Jong Orange” because his behavior is so similar to that of late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il and now his son, Kim Jong-Un. But I say it with acid in my stomach, knowing it’s a brief joke that alleviates a millisecond’s worth of stress before the next torrent of bad news breaks. 

I can’t believe it’s only 1:20pm PST.  DJT has been POTUS six days and, as we knew he would, he has unleashed a cavalcade of horror with each passing hour. Even more so than during his ridiculously self-aggrandizing transition and his total fucking joke of a campaign.  He lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes and it’s killing him.

With the help of Putin-endorsed hacking,  FBI Director James Comey’s naked partisanship, and an outdated Electoral College, DJT became 45th President of the the United States. 

But he knows he didn’t win the hearts and minds of most people for whom he now works. And unlike his employees or contestants on his reality show, he can’t fire us. Because, like I said, he works for us. 

His inability or unwillingness to grasp this fact is why he lashes out again and again.  Last night on ABC News, he compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.

You know which President gets to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln? Absolutely none of them. But DJT says it with a straight face, most of the nation laughs or recoils in horror--or both--and he feels smaller and lashes out again. 

In the same ABC interview, he also railed he’s launching “an investigation!” into what he insists were “three to five million illegal voters” in the 2016 presidential election. He stated that each one of them voted for Hillary Clinton. 

The ABC journalist cited the Pew Report and others that found absolutely no evidence of such voter fraud. Nada. Zilch.  Then DJT--in what must be a first for an on-camera interview for a POTUS--excoriated the Pew Report.

His lunacy would be grimly bemusing if the election had gone the way it should have and he were relegated to a desk on FOX News, trading conspiracy theories with Sean Hannity. We could dismiss him as one more crackpot we avoid discussing with elderly relatives at holidays.

But he has the nuclear codes, the Executive Order, the veto.

Today he is incensed that Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled their meeting. Nieto reiterated: Mexico is not paying for DJT’s wall. 

I don’t know how this will end, but it will get worse before it gets better. 

Six days ago, Barack Obama was still President.  It feels like another lifetime ago, because it was.

[techscopic]

New free-to-play ‘X-Files’ game raises some red flags

The game is called The X-Files: Deep State, and FoxNext is the publisher. Friends, this is what normalization looks like.

The actual game is a free-to-play “mystery investigation” for Android/iOS and Facebook. It’s a tie-in for the incoming 11th season of The X-Files, which arrives on Jan. 3, 2018. The surface-details-only announcement is exactly the sort of thing we’d normally skip right over, but that subtitle sets off alarm bells.

SEE ALSO: ‘The X-Files’ Season 11 trailer is all about Mulder and Scully’s son, and we have so many questions

For those who might not know, the “deep state” is a crackpot conspiracy theory often embraced by political extremists. It’s also, in recent months, been a rallying cry wielded by controversial public figures like Donald Trump and his Minister of Propaganda Fox News host Sean Hannity. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Gaming, The X Files, Foxnext, and The X Files Deep State

New free-to-play ‘X-Files’ game raises some red flags syndicated from http://ift.tt/2wBRU5Z

[avenger-equalizer-blog]

The New Paranoia: Trump’s election has turned the left into a breeding ground for conspiracy theories.

The New Republic Kindle Edition, 2017 © The New Republic

Colin Dickey Late on Election Night in 2012, the nation watched as Karl Rove panicked on live television. Fox News, his post–Bush administration sinecure, had just called Ohio—and, by extension, the country—for Barack Obama. While the network broadcast images of jubilant crowds in Chicago, Rove refused to concede. “This is premature,”he insisted, ticking off various precinct figures from Ohio counties and warning that everyone needed to be “very cautious about intruding into this process.”For an embarrassingly long half-hour, Rove argued with the entire network, demanding that Fox retract its call on Ohio, to no avail. What did Karl Rove know that no one else did? Why was he so certain that the numbers from Ohio were wrong? The left-wing web site Truthout thought it had the answer. A few days after the election, the site published an article asserting that Rove had been working behind the scenes to rig Ohio’s electronic voting machines, monkeying with the software to tilt the count to Mitt Romney, as part of a conspiracy to rob Barack Obama of a second term. He’d done this before, the site charged, back in 2004, to assure Bush’s reelection. That’s why Rove appeared “genuinely shocked”when Obama took Ohio, “because he knew the fix was in, just like in 2004, and there was no way President Obama was going to win reelection.”So why hadn’t Rove’s ratfucking scheme worked? Because, Truthout claimed, the hacker collective Anonymous had learned of his conspiracy, and had secretly out-ratfucked the ratfucker. Citing a YouTube video released before the election, Truthout described how Anonymous had warned Rove not to act: “We want you to know that we are watching you, waiting for you to make this mistake of thinking you can rig this election to your favor.”Truthout, if correct, suggested an awful truth about our political system: A shadowy organization of superhackers was the only thing standing between us and a stolen election. For the most part, this kind of conspiracy theory—the idea that sinister forces are secretly engaged in a host of elaborate plots to manipulate virtually every aspect of our lives—has been fairly rare on the American left. Sure, liberal nut jobs have engaged in all kinds of far-fetched theories over the years, wild ideas about the Trilateral Commission and the JFK assassination, that the government created AIDS to destroy the black community, or that George W. Bush had advance warning of the terrorist attacks on September 11. But most of these theories have remained cordoned off from mainstream media; the Truthout story, for example, never circulated much beyond a few fringe web sites. The left has generally presented itself as the sober, rational half of our political discourse, eschewing paranoid fables and histrionic bloviaters in favor of reputable, fact-checked reporting. The right, on the other hand, has not only incubated conspiracy theories, it has thrived on them, become dependent on them, built entire media ecosystems and political careers around them. Glenn Beck, at his peak, commanded a daily television audience of more than three million viewers by arguing that the Obama administration had secret plans to implement a Second Bill of Rights, that the Arab Spring was the beginning of a worldwide Muslim caliphate, and that Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt orchestrated a 100-year conspiracy to establish a “socialist utopia”in America. Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars, has become an influential voice on the right by insisting that the Sandy Hook massacre was a government-led false flag operation to implement gun control, that same-sex marriage stems from a “eugenicist-globalist”worldview, and that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta ran a child sex–trafficking ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. None of this stopped Donald Trump from calling Jones for advice and appearing on his show. After all, the two men helped promulgate what is perhaps the right’s most influential conspiracy theory—that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, a racist fantasia that launched Trump’s political career and helped land him the presidency. But since the election of the Birther-in-Chief, both the nature and the source of conspiracy theories has shifted dramatically. In recent months, the left has begun to rival Trump himself as an incubator for sinister musings and crackpot accusations. And like Trump, left-wing conspiracists are using Twitter to gestate and market-test their most outlandish forms of political insanity. Leading the charge has been Louise Mensch, a British former MP who seemingly overnight has become the main spokesperson of the paranoid resistance. Mensch has attracted more than 284,000 followers on Twitter, legitimate journalists among them, by posing ever more elaborate and ludicrous theories of the Russian conspiracy to elect Trump. She claims, for example, that Andrew Breitbart was assassinated by Russian agents to allow for the ascendancy of Steve Bannon, who took over the Breitbart web site after its founder’s death in 2012. Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal with a minor was, likewise, the work of Russian intelligence: Mensch claims that they invented a fake profile for a 15-year-old girl to entrap Weiner, planted files containing Hillary Clinton’s emails on his computer, and leaked the existence of those files to the FBI. Another left-wing node of conspiratorial diffusion can be found at The Palmer Report, a once relatively obscure pro-Hillary blog that has built a large following with its wildly speculative theories about Trump. According to the site, Trump himself had Russian agent Sergei Mikhailov killed in December to prevent the release of the now infamous “pee tape”that purportedly shows the president-elect urinating on a bed the Obamas slept in. Vladimir Putin, the site maintains, is using the video to blackmail Trump—and the president “may have already acted on it in a manner which would be both treasonous and murderous.”The site’s founder, Bill Palmer, routinely blasts out stories that sound serious but are actually based on a single, unverified source. In May, Palmer reported that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had ordered Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch to recuse himself from all Trump-related Russia hearings. His source? A single tweet from an anonymous Twitter account under the name “Puesto Loco.”Long quarantined in the furthest corners of the internet, these left-wing rantings have begun to find their way into mainstream political discourse. In March, Louise Mensch was inexplicably given space on the New York Times op-ed page to trumpet her theories, rattling off a list of Russian operatives she believed should be called to testify before Congress—a list that included Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg. Her tally of agents has since expanded to encompass everyone from Black Lives Matter to Sean Hannity to Bernie Sanders. In April, MSNBC’s Laurence O’Donnell echoed a Palmer Report theory that Syria’s chemical weapon attack had been orchestrated by the Russian government, so that Trump could appear to distance himself from Putin. (Like a true conspiracy theorist, O’Donnell offered no proof for the claim, insisting instead that “you won’t hear … proof that the scenario I’ve just outlined is impossible.”) On Twitter, the Democratic Party’s deputy communications director retweeted Mensch’s unsubstantiated hypothesis that Russia had some form of blackmail on Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who has since announced that he would resign. On May 10, Senator Ed Markey told CNN that “a grand jury has been empaneled up in New York”to investigate Russian meddling in the election; pressed by The Guardian, Markey’s staff said he got the information from Mensch and The Palmer Report. (A later press release claimed he’d received it from a “briefing”that was “not substantiated.”) When Ned Price, a former spokesman for the National Security Council, was asked why he retweeted a Palmer Report story, he insisted that a retweet was not an endorsement, but professed an openness to conspiracy theories. “Every once in a blue moon,”he said, “the tin hat can fit.”Why has Trump’s election driven the left to embrace such transparent nonsense? Part of the reason lies in the public’s loss of faith in the mainstream media, which predicted an all-but-certain victory for Hillary Clinton. Part of the reason also lies in Trump’s willingness to lie in direct contradiction of the known facts, an extension of the right’s long-running assault on the very notion of objective, verifiable truth. But above all, conspiracy thinking has gained traction among liberals for a more prosaic reason: Liberals are human beings, and human beings get rattled when they’re afraid. If the left is succumbing to conspiracy theories, it’s because conspiracy theories are a way to manage anxiety. Conventional wisdom has long held that there would never be a left-wing rival to Glenn Beck or Alex Jones, because liberals are just too damn smart to fall for that kind of stuff. “We believe in subtlety,”Mario Cuomo once explained. “We believe in telling the whole truth. We don’t want to exaggerate. Look, they write their message with crayons. We use fine-point quills.”As it turns out, though, the left wasn’t smarter than the right; it simply wasn’t terrified enough. Waking up to a country run by a man who openly boasts of sexual assault, who has systematically targeted immigrants and Muslims for deportation, whose every utterance seems to bespeak some form of mental instability, liberals suddenly find themselves adrift in a world they never imagined possible. In a landscape this dystopian, conspiracy offers a salve. It promises an order behind the madness, some sort of rational explanation for the seeming chaos. It validates your paranoia, which paradoxically confirms you’re not paranoid. And most dangerous of all, it affirms your sense that things are hopeless, while absolving you from having to do anything about it. Conspiracy theories may temporarily allay our fear, but they ultimately exacerbate the very conditions that created that fear in the first place.   If there’s an aesthetic hallmark of this brave new world of left-wing conspiracy theorists, it’s the long, connect-the-dots Twitter thread. The purest and most overelaborated example of this new genre of paranoia debuted on December 11, with the publication of an unreadable, 127-tweet thread known as “Time for Some Game Theory.”Written by Eric Garland, a previously obscure figure who describes himself as a “futurist, keynote speaker, author, intelligence analyst, columnist, and bassist,”the thread veers between the sort of groundless conjecture and outright gibberish that form the basis of President Trump’s own late-night Twitter epistles. (“The Russians f**king rule at covert shit,”reads one Garland tweet. “Always have. Ask a cold warrior. Mucho respect for our adversaries. They do clever work!”) Yet “game theory”thread spread through the internet like measles in an undervaccinated population, garnering widespread praise and driving Garland’s following from 5,000 to 30,000 overnight. Garland’s thread depicts how the Russians, reduced by the end of the Cold War to “Drunk Uncle status,”systematically used everything from George W. Bush’s recklessness in Iraq to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA to undermine confidence in the U.S. intelligence community. “DID YOU KNOW YOUR TOASTER IS SPYING ON YOU?”Garland tweeted, parodying the mind-set of an American duped by the diabolical Russian conspiracy. “THE GUBMINT! IT IS EVERYWHERE! THEY SPY ON (*controls snickering*) ALLIES! ALL BAD!”According to Garland, Russia’s long con led directly to our current political predicament: “Trump says he don’t need no stinkin’intel agencies. Russia (BWA HAHAHAHAAAA) blames Ukraine! LOLOLOLOLZZZ.”The only way forward, Garland concludes, is to embrace his “game theory”in all its intricate zaniness. “To be American,”he tweets, “is to accept that unflinchingly and to soldier forth for future generations, and DO BETTER, GODDAMN IT.”Other Twitter-threaders were quick to follow in Garland’s paranoid footsteps. Adam Khan, a Silicon Valley marketing consultant, linked to a report about a Treasury Department probe into real estate deals in Miami and New York, which noted that shell companies making all-cash offers sometimes serve as fronts for corrupt officials or drug smugglers. This is an important moment for the left. If we give credence to the wild fantasies spreading virally through Twitter, we open ourselves up to further infection by a new generation of liberal birthers and truthers. What’s worse, believing in conspiracy also makes us less likely to take action: In one study, participants who were shown a video claiming that global warming was a hoax were less likely to believe scientific studies about climate change or sign a petition to reduce carbon emissions. “Exposing the public to conspiratorial thoughts about a specific issue”—no matter how briefly, the researchers concluded—“may even decrease general pro-social tendencies.”Conspiracy theories, for all their crazy whiteboards and doomsday mentality, make the world seem simpler—and in doing so, they urge us to reject the hard work of organizing and activism, of knocking on doors and registering voters, of staying informed and showing up to town halls, of participating in local and state government, of reestablishing the basic principles of electoral politics that are so desperately in peril. The promise of conspiracy—that it will assuage our anxiety—is a false one. Watching Donald Trump from the social media sidelines, expecting at any minute that the Deep State will appear and fire a single magic bullet from the Grassy Knoll and put everything right again, is a dangerous delusion. It offers false assurance that you, as one lone individual, can’t do anything, even though American democracy has never needed you more.

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

Sean Hannity Dismisses Trump-Russia Link As Just A 'Bizarre Conspiracy Theory'

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Sean Hannity doesn’t want to hear about alleged links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Even after the president fired FBI director James Comey amid an investigation into the matter, Hannity dismissed the possible ties as something fabricated by the left, especially what he called the “destroy Trump media.”

Speaking on his Fox News show on Wednesday night, Hannity said:   

“Deranged liberal crackpots are at it again, and they’re using President Trump’s decision ― very important decision ― to fire the now former FBI director to push all kinds of brand-new, completely insane, bizarre conspiracy theories.”

Hannity said the real collusion wasn’t between Trump’s campaign and Russia. It was between the media and 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

“There is zero evidence, so far, that Donald Trump ― his campaign, his transition ― ever colluded with the Russians,” he said. “It is a bizarre conspiracy theory.”

He accused Democrats of having a selective memory for attacking Comey previously, but showing anger at Trump’s decision to fire him. 

“There is no getting through to these tinfoil hat conspiracy liberals. On the left, they’re detached from reality. They’re oblivious to truth today,” Hannity said. “It’s time to diagnose them with what it is: Trump derangement syndrome.”

Then Hannity seemed to predict that Trump will win a second term. 

“Sadly, there is not a cure,” he said. “That’s the worst part. This will go on for four years, probably eight years.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2q4WtoL

[pat78701]

Sean Hannity Dismisses Trump-Russia Link As Just A 'Bizarre Conspiracy Theory'

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Sean Hannity doesn’t want to hear about alleged links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Even after the president fired FBI director James Comey amid an investigation into the matter, Hannity dismissed the possible ties as something fabricated by the left, especially what he called the “destroy Trump media.”

Speaking on his Fox News show on Wednesday night, Hannity said:   

“Deranged liberal crackpots are at it again, and they’re using President Trump’s decision ― very important decision ― to fire the now former FBI director to push all kinds of brand-new, completely insane, bizarre conspiracy theories.”

Hannity said the real collusion wasn’t between Trump’s campaign and Russia. It was between the media and 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

“There is zero evidence, so far, that Donald Trump ― his campaign, his transition ― ever colluded with the Russians,” he said. “It is a bizarre conspiracy theory.”

He accused Democrats of having a selective memory for attacking Comey previously, but showing anger at Trump’s decision to fire him. 

“There is no getting through to these tinfoil hat conspiracy liberals. On the left, they’re detached from reality. They’re oblivious to truth today,” Hannity said. “It’s time to diagnose them with what it is: Trump derangement syndrome.”

Then Hannity seemed to predict that Trump will win a second term. 

“Sadly, there is not a cure,” he said. “That’s the worst part. This will go on for four years, probably eight years.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2q4WtoL

[repwincostl4m0a2]

Sean Hannity Dismisses Trump-Russia Link As Just A 'Bizarre Conspiracy Theory'

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Sean Hannity doesn’t want to hear about alleged links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Even after the president fired FBI director James Comey amid an investigation into the matter, Hannity dismissed the possible ties as something fabricated by the left, especially what he called the “destroy Trump media.”

Speaking on his Fox News show on Wednesday night, Hannity said:   

“Deranged liberal crackpots are at it again, and they’re using President Trump’s decision ― very important decision ― to fire the now former FBI director to push all kinds of brand-new, completely insane, bizarre conspiracy theories.”

Hannity said the real collusion wasn’t between Trump’s campaign and Russia. It was between the media and 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

“There is zero evidence, so far, that Donald Trump ― his campaign, his transition ― ever colluded with the Russians,” he said. “It is a bizarre conspiracy theory.”

He accused Democrats of having a selective memory for attacking Comey previously, but showing anger at Trump’s decision to fire him. 

“There is no getting through to these tinfoil hat conspiracy liberals. On the left, they’re detached from reality. They’re oblivious to truth today,” Hannity said. “It’s time to diagnose them with what it is: Trump derangement syndrome.”

Then Hannity seemed to predict that Trump will win a second term. 

“Sadly, there is not a cure,” he said. “That’s the worst part. This will go on for four years, probably eight years.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2q4WtoL

[grgedoors02142]

Sean Hannity Dismisses Trump-Russia Link As Just A 'Bizarre Conspiracy Theory'

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Sean Hannity doesn’t want to hear about alleged links between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Even after the president fired FBI director James Comey amid an investigation into the matter, Hannity dismissed the possible ties as something fabricated by the left, especially what he called the “destroy Trump media.”

Speaking on his Fox News show on Wednesday night, Hannity said:   

“Deranged liberal crackpots are at it again, and they’re using President Trump’s decision ― very important decision ― to fire the now former FBI director to push all kinds of brand-new, completely insane, bizarre conspiracy theories.”

Hannity said the real collusion wasn’t between Trump’s campaign and Russia. It was between the media and 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

“There is zero evidence, so far, that Donald Trump ― his campaign, his transition ― ever colluded with the Russians,” he said. “It is a bizarre conspiracy theory.”

He accused Democrats of having a selective memory for attacking Comey previously, but showing anger at Trump’s decision to fire him. 

“There is no getting through to these tinfoil hat conspiracy liberals. On the left, they’re detached from reality. They’re oblivious to truth today,” Hannity said. “It’s time to diagnose them with what it is: Trump derangement syndrome.”

Then Hannity seemed to predict that Trump will win a second term. 

“Sadly, there is not a cure,” he said. “That’s the worst part. This will go on for four years, probably eight years.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2q4WtoL